Berlusconi paid for sex with Ruby, didn't know underage
(ANSA) - Milan, October 16 - Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex with a Moroccan dancer called Ruby the Heartstealer, a Milan appeals court said Thursday in its explanation of its July decision to acquit the ex-premier of involvement in underage prostitution and abuse of office.
The court cleared the 78-year-old billionaire of the underage prostitution charge because it said there was no proof Berlusconi knew Ruby was 17 at the time - one year under the legal limit for sex workers.
The court said "paid acts of a sexual nature" took place between Berlusconi and Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Marough. It added that El Marough's "uninhibited habits and exhibitionist attitudes" were "perfectly compatible" with the so-called 'bunga bunga' sex parties that took place at Berlusconi's home at Arcore, near Milan. The court said it had established there was "certain proof of prostitution at Arcore on the evenings when Karima El Mahroug too part (in the parties)". "She stopped there overnight at least twice", it added.
When he phoned a Milan police station after Ruby was detained on an unrelated theft claim, the court went on, Berlusconi was afraid of "the risk of compromising revelations" and had "a personal, concrete" interest in seeing she was handed over to Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti and not to a youth home. Minetti, a former dental hygienist of the ex-premier who was elected for his centre-right Forza Italia party, collected Ruby from the police station along with a Brazilian alleged prostitute who had contacted Berlusconi to tell him the girl was in trouble after being reported by a fellow alleged callgirl. Berlusconi "did not threaten" police to get them to release Ruby by claiming she was the niece of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, the court said. This was why he was cleared of the abuse-of-office charge, for which he was sentenced in the first-instance trial to six years. At that same trial, he got one year for sex with an underage prostitute, making a total of seven years. In further comment on its July ruling, the court said prosecutors had "clearly" demonstrated that women sold sex at the bunga bunga parties. "The acts of sexual nature publicly consumed during the evenings at Arcore can be regarded as having achieved certain proof of licentious performances" such as "strip dances", "lap dances", "simulation of sexual acts", "touching of the breast, buttocks or other intimate parts (covered or naked), group dips in the pool, kisses", the judge wrote.
These sexual acts, which included "flirting", for the "way and circumstances in which they were carried out, were clearly directed at stimulating the sexual lust of the owner of the house (and his eventual male guests) and to procure favours in the form of donations or other benefits (payment of rents and bills, purchase of automobiles, jewelry; financing slush funds or work opportunities in show business".
The "greater earning power (attached to) staying the night" in Berlusconi's company was "particularly coveted by the girls", the court found. The sexual acts must be seen "juridically within the typology of sexual acts for payment which constitutes prostitution". Finally, the court held that Ruby had "evident" financial motives for retracting statements she made to prosecutors regarding the sex parties.
Ruby is currently under investigation in the so called Ruby Ter case, alleging corrupt behaviour by witnesses, Berlusconi's defence lawyers, and others during the two trials. Ruby had a "personal, concrete interest of economic nature" from September 2010 forward to "withdraw prior declarations to the prosecutors on aspects more incriminating for Berlusconi" in the "belief she would be able to take financial advantage from a testimony (that was) obliging toward the prime minister," the judge wrote. The judge explained there is "clear and objective evidence in the tapped conversations and in seized notes of Karima El Mahroug's expectations of gain" if she kept her mouth shut even "at the cost of passing herself off as 'crazy'".
The court cleared the 78-year-old billionaire of the underage prostitution charge because it said there was no proof Berlusconi knew Ruby was 17 at the time - one year under the legal limit for sex workers.
When he phoned a Milan police station after Ruby was detained on an unrelated theft claim, the court went on, Berlusconi was afraid of "the risk of compromising revelations" and had "a personal, concrete" interest in seeing she was handed over to Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti and not to a youth home. Minetti, a former dental hygienist of the ex-premier who was elected for his centre-right Forza Italia party, collected Ruby from the police station along with a Brazilian alleged prostitute who had contacted Berlusconi to tell him the girl was in trouble after being reported by a fellow alleged callgirl. Berlusconi "did not threaten" police to get them to release Ruby by claiming she was the niece of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, the court said. This was why he was cleared of the abuse-of-office charge, for which he was sentenced in the first-instance trial to six years. At that same trial, he got one year for sex with an underage prostitute, making a total of seven years. In further comment on its July ruling, the court said prosecutors had "clearly" demonstrated that women sold sex at the bunga bunga parties. "The acts of sexual nature publicly consumed during the evenings at Arcore can be regarded as having achieved certain proof of licentious performances" such as "strip dances", "lap dances", "simulation of sexual acts", "touching of the breast, buttocks or other intimate parts (covered or naked), group dips in the pool, kisses", the judge wrote.
These sexual acts, which included "flirting", for the "way and circumstances in which they were carried out, were clearly directed at stimulating the sexual lust of the owner of the house (and his eventual male guests) and to procure favours in the form of donations or other benefits (payment of rents and bills, purchase of automobiles, jewelry; financing slush funds or work opportunities in show business".
The "greater earning power (attached to) staying the night" in Berlusconi's company was "particularly coveted by the girls", the court found. The sexual acts must be seen "juridically within the typology of sexual acts for payment which constitutes prostitution". Finally, the court held that Ruby had "evident" financial motives for retracting statements she made to prosecutors regarding the sex parties.
Ruby is currently under investigation in the so called Ruby Ter case, alleging corrupt behaviour by witnesses, Berlusconi's defence lawyers, and others during the two trials. Ruby had a "personal, concrete interest of economic nature" from September 2010 forward to "withdraw prior declarations to the prosecutors on aspects more incriminating for Berlusconi" in the "belief she would be able to take financial advantage from a testimony (that was) obliging toward the prime minister," the judge wrote. The judge explained there is "clear and objective evidence in the tapped conversations and in seized notes of Karima El Mahroug's expectations of gain" if she kept her mouth shut even "at the cost of passing herself off as 'crazy'".